News Corp. seeking $100 million for MySpace, bids expected this week

By Aemon Malone April 27, 2011

Beleaguered social networking site MySpace may have a new owner by the end of the week. The Wall Street Journal has reported that News. Corp is seeking $100 million for MySpace. The sale is expected to attract bids from a variety investment firms and companies who may seek the buy parts or the whole of MySpace.

News. Corp paid $580 million for MySpace back in 2005. At the time, the purchase appeared to be a solid investment. But as Facebook rose to become the preferred social networking destination, users began abandoning MySpace in droves. In late 2010, after a redesign and a new focus on music and entertainment failed to reinvigorate, News. Corp suggested that it was ready to give up on the site. MySpace began drastically scaling back its workforce earlier this year, a clear sign that the site wasn’t going to be in the hands of News Corp. much longer.

We may know who will end up with the company by the end of the week. Parties reportedly interested in acquiring MySpace include private equity firm THL Partners, Redscout Ventures and Criterion Capital, owner of social network Bebo. Chinese Internet holding company Tencent is also reportedly interested as is Myspace co-founder Chris De Wolfe. What’s not yet clear is what any of these companies plan to do with MySpace if a sale goes through.

Topics

Facebook

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Computing

How to apply and clean off thermal paste

Thermal paste application on CPU.

If you're building a computer, you need thermal paste, or heat paste, to ensure that your computer's processor doesn't overheat. It's a gloopy, silvery material that you squirt between the processor and the cooler to fill in all the micro cavities in their surfaces, which enables a more efficient transfer of heat from the processor to the cooler. The best thermal pastes work so well they let your processor run harder and faster, at lower temperatures, making your PC quieter in turn.

You need to replace the thermal interface material every few years, too, so if you haven't opened up your PC in a while, it might be time to give it a spring cleaning. Keep reading to learn how to apply heat paste and how to clean it. Plus, we'll go over other aspects of its use, such as how often you need to reapply it and if there are any alternatives to using heat paste.

Computing

How to check how much RAM you have on Windows and Mac

RAM installed in slots.

You can only know if you have enough RAM, if you know how to check how much you have. Fortunately, doing so is super quick and easy and then you can decide whether you want to upgrade your memory -- here's how to choose new memory sticks -- or whether you have enough for what you need to do.

You certainly don't need to buy more or new RAM just for the sake of it, and if you have enough for what you need, more memory won't make much difference anyway.

Computing

The real reason so many laptops have moved to soldered RAM

The Intel 12th-gen Mainboard upgrade for the Framework Laptop.

The completely redesigned Dell XPS 14 and 16 came out this year as two of the most divisive laptops in recent memory. No, it wasn't just the capacitive touch buttons or invisible trackpad that caused an uproar -- it also moved to soldered RAM. This was a big change from the past, where the XPS 15 and 17 were both celebrated for their upgradability.

Of course, Dell isn't the first to make the transition. In fact, they're one of the last, which is what makes the decision so much tougher to swallow. Where soldered RAM was previously limited to just MacBooks and ultrabooks, it's now affecting most high-performance laptops for gaming as well. Even the fantastic ROG Zephyrus G14 moved to soldered memory this year.